Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
My students tease me for this, but this is why after almost every single module in Learning Sound & Synthesis I say:
“Now take some time to play with these ideas in your own music and really listen to the results.” 👀🎛️
Because if you’re learning synthesis, following tutorials, and still feeling like making your own patches involves a lot of guesswork… there’s something important that often gets missed in the process.
It’s possible to learn where to plug things in without really learning what to listen for along the way.
For example:
You might learn: “patch an LFO to the filter cutoff”
…but not to notice:
➡️ what specifically changed in the sound?
➡️ how does the modulation affect the energy or movement?
➡️ what happens when the modulation depth changes?
➡️ why does one setting feel subtle while another feels chaotic?
That *listening* process is such a huge part of learning synthesis.
In many ways, synthesis is just as much an ear-training practice as it is a technical one.
The other piece of this is muscle memory + repetition.
When I first started learning synthesis, I had to rebuild the same kinds of
patches over and over and OVER again before signal flow started to feel natural to me.
Over time, your ears get sharper, you start recognizing patterns more quickly, your hands begin to remember where things go.
Eventually, you move away from trying to memorize tutorials, and start understanding why patches work in the first place.
It will click! Just keep going (+ keep listening).
#modularsynth #synthesis #eurorack #sounddesign
My students tease me for this, but this is why after almost every single module in Learning Sound & Synthesis I say:
“Now take some time to play with these ideas in your own music and really listen to the results.” 👀🎛️
Because if you’re learning synthesis, following tutorials, and still feeling like making your own patches involves a lot of guesswork… there’s something important that often gets missed in the process.
It’s possible to learn where to plug things in without really learning what to listen for along the way.
For example:
You might learn: “patch an LFO to the filter cutoff”
…but not to notice:
➡️ what specifically changed in the sound?
➡️ how does the modulation affect the energy or movement?
➡️ what happens when the modulation depth changes?
➡️ why does one setting feel subtle while another feels chaotic?
That *listening* process is such a huge part of learning synthesis.
In many ways, synthesis is just as much an ear-training practice as it is a technical one.
The other piece of this is muscle memory + repetition.
When I first started learning synthesis, I had to rebuild the same kinds of
patches over and over and OVER again before signal flow started to feel natural to me.
Over time, your ears get sharper, you start recognizing patterns more quickly, your hands begin to remember where things go.
Eventually, you move away from trying to memorize tutorials, and start understanding why patches work in the first place.
It will click! Just keep going (+ keep listening).
#modularsynth #synthesis #eurorack #sounddesign
